Recruiting Blue (and White) Chips

If you are still reading this blog, then you likely have been keeping up with the latest recruiting news. Not because I cover that--the PA Sports Blog is the "unofficial" source of recruiting items. But recruiting is virtually the only news this time of year. So if you are still here, then that is what is on your mind.

Funny how an 11-1 season, Orange Bowl victory and a couple of rookie burners have altered the way teenagers have come to perceive Penn State, which appears poised to land one of its best recruiting classes in several years. Paterno has a fistful of coach-of-the-year awards, he's regained the relevancy he might have lost during the down cycle, and when he enters a prospect's living room to make his pitch, he again is closing more effectively than Mariano Rivera.

Penn State has 18 verbal commitments and remains strongly in contention for several other blue-chippers.

The national signing date is Feb. 1. A number of rating services place Penn State's current group of commitments in the top 10 nationally, with a chance to edge even higher if some of the fence-sitters decide their future would be best served in Happy Valley.

Scout.com ranks the Penn State recruiting class at No. 7; Rivals.com and ESPN.com have it 10th.

Not that all of that necessarily means anything - Shane Conlan, one of Penn State's all-time great linebackers and a longtime star with the Buffalo Bills, once was turned down by Division II Edinboro - but the inference is that the Lions are back to reloading, not rebuilding.

And the corollary to that: not every 5* recruit ends up with a five-star career.

I personally am not a recruitnik. I honestly don't follow it that close. But I am not immune to the hype. I cried when Chad Henne donned a Michigan hat. Tears of anger--but tears nonetheless. But more than cheering when Derrick Williams announced he was coming to Penn State, I enjoyed cheering him on the field.

Who knows what goes through the minds of these kids? Rolle picked Florida State . . . for the academics? Now think about that for a moment. Compare the grad rates of the two schools for the football programs. If you had to rate Paterno and Bowden on a scale of one and two, one being the highest, as to which coach is more focused on academics, Paterno would be a 1, and Bowden would be like a 99. But somehow Rolle used some fuzzy logic, and the rest is history.

What I like most about last year's class was the attitude. Forget the stars. These guys talked to each other. They recruited each other. They bonded--way before they ever donned the black shoes and plain white unis. That alone may be worth more than any recruiting guru can concoct and chart in the stars.

And this year's class--it may have more of the same. We can only hope. But the stars are nice too, as long as you haven't fallen and cracked your head.